127. THE REPUBLICAN BANNER An extremely rare broadside, 1p. legal folio, [Nashville, Tenn.], Dec. 25, 1861, entitled "Address of the Carriers to the Patrons of the Republican Banner. December 25, 1861." bearing the text of a twenty-one stanza poem which reads in very small part: "...when Vulture-like the northern Tyrant stood / Proclaiming war, and freedom's dying throes, / With one fell strain he rent the ties of blood, / And kindred millions turned to deadliest foes. / Ah! then, along our border States there ran / A shock electric, as the lightning's stroke, / Resistance, linked the soul of man to man, And thunder-toned the love of freedom spoke. / 'Twas then Virginia, in her Matron pride, / Resplendent with the glories now gone by, And stalwart Tennessee rushed side by side, / To win anew their liberties, or die...when proud Sumter lowered her flag in shame, / That flag, once glorious in its unstained power, / 'Twas Southern valor won the undying name / Of conqueror, o'er the unconquered till that hour. / And when upon Manassas' awful plain / The Federal hordes fled back aghast in woe, / Not courage only heaped the field with slain, / The majesty of right o'erwhelmed the foe. So at Bull Run, at Bethel, Lexington, Leesburg, and Springfield, Oak Hill, and Belmont, Through hireling thousands met us two to one, / We struck, nor stayed the fearful odds to count..." The antecedents of this Nashville newspaper date back to 1812, emerging in 1837 as the Republican Banner. It became the first permanent daily newspaper to serve the Nashville area and the first to operate its presses by steam. On February 23, 1862, Nashville surrendered to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's troops and the Republican Banner suspended publication for the remainder of the war. There are only two extant copies of this broadside known. Ink spot at top right, light soiling, else very good condition. $1,200-1,500